The Intel Core 2 Duo E7000 series has brought in great performance at a low price point. They are basically current 45nm Wolfdale core based processors with 3 MB of L2 cache and 1066 MHz FSB. What it also means that it comes with higher FSB multiplier values to achieve the designated clock speeds. For applications that aren't cache intensive, and for users with appropriate tweaking skills, the E7000 series is a boon. Sources claim that on October 19th, Intel will release the Core 2 Duo E7400 processor, a successor to the current E7300. The release also affects prices across its segment.

The E7400 comes with a 2.80 GHz clock speed. It comes with a FSB multiplier of 10.5x for and 3 MB of L2 cache. Coming to its price, it displaces the E7300 from its current price of US $133 and pushes it down to $113, the E7400 will be priced at $133. In its segment, the E7400 will compete with AMD's Phenom X3 8750 and Phenom X4 9550, though it is expected to perform better than AMD's offerings in that price-range given today's applications.Source: Hardspell

by: WarEagleAUI would thing the quad core 9550 and the tri core 8750 would be a bit better performance than a dual core. However, I could also be waaaaaay wrong here.

The tri cores are slower than the similarly priced Intel duals in most usage scenarios. They might pull ahead at some multi-threaded apps, but there slower clock speed and generally less efficient architecture, hinder them in most other applications.

Plus, once you overclock, the E7xxx clocks so high compared to the X3, that it more than makes up for the one less core.